Robert F. Kennedy Jr. files in NH to get on presidential ballot: Here's what is next
CONCORD — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed Thursday to be a presidential candidate on the general election ballot in New Hampshire.
A Kennedy representative filed a Declaration of Intent for the independent candidate to get on the ballot. There are still several steps to take before he is officially on the ballot in November.
The longshot third-party candidate and environmental lawyer has made news for his potential to be a spoiler candidate in a tight election and for his famous last name. Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. Senator from New York assassinated in June 1968 during his run for president.
More: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn't see himself as a spoiler for Democrats or GOP
Will RFK Jr. be on the ballot in New Hampshire?
According to the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office, the Kennedy campaign must turn in at least 3,000 nomination forms signed by registered voters, 1,500 from each congressional district, to the supervisors of the checklist by Aug. 7.
Those signatures can be turned in earlier, but the supervisors do not have to certify the papers until the Aug. 28 deadline.
If the signatures are certified, the campaign must bring the papers to New Hampshire’s secretary of state’s office, which has until Sept. 4 to certify the nomination papers.
Only after that would Kennedy be an official candidate on the ballot.
Kennedy said he had more than 5,000 signatures, all collected on presidential primary day in New Hampshire in January.
“It was snowing that day, if you recall. So it makes it more difficult because you have to ask people to take their gloves off and to stop in the middle of the sidewalk when the snow is coming down on them,” said Kennedy in an interview with USA TODAY and Seacoastonline. “And so under those very difficult circumstances, we were still able to get the signatures in a single day, all of them – double what we needed practically.”
Anna Sventek, the communications director at the secretary of state’s office, said he “may very well have” collected 5,000 signatures.
“The candidates could start collecting those signatures in January,” said Sventek. “I’m sure he does have enough signatures. But those won’t be certified until those deadlines.”
Kennedy said his campaign planned to file the signatures in New Hampshire at the last minute for “strategic reasons” to avoid challenges.
More: Read the exclusive USA TODAY interview of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
How will RFK Jr. do in New Hampshire?
Kennedy said he is trying to win the election. But Andrew Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, thinks it’s unlikely he’ll come anywhere close in New Hampshire.
A May poll from the UNH Survey Center showed that 3% of New Hampshire residents would vote for Kennedy if the election were held today, compared to 44% for Joe Biden and 41% for Donald Trump.
“A lot of what you’re seeing for RFK, Jr. is simply, I don’t like the other two. It’s not really support for RFK right now. It’s just that he’s an alternative to Trump or Biden,” Smith said. “I think what you’re gonna see, and this has historically been the case, is you see those kinds of protest candidates or third-party candidates that people will point to early on in the campaign, but by the time the election comes around, people basically drift back to their own party’s candidate.”
Kennedy’s favorability in New Hampshire is low, too: according to the poll, 51% of Granite Staters view him unfavorably.
Smith said Kennedy could act as a spoiler since even getting 5% of the vote could make a difference, but he doesn’t expect him to take a significant part of the vote.
Who else will be on the ballot in November?
In addition to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Jill Stein also filed her Declaration of Intent in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Stein will have to go through the same process as Kennedy to get on the ballot officially.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. files in NH to get on presidential ballot
